100 years of the Bauhaus: Exhibitions 2019

The Düsseldorf artist Thomas Schütte has designed a walk-on sculpture for Krefeld

Autor: Julia Bauer

The “Staatliches Bauhaus” was founded on 1 April 1919. The 100th anniversary next year will also be celebrated in North Rhine-Westphalia. Here is an overview of the highlights coming up this year.

Map2019

Krefeld
Date to be announced

Together with a walk-in sculpture by contemporary artist Thomas Schütte, in which an exhibition on the connection between Bauhaus and industry is shown, the Haus Lange and Haus Esters museums will become the core of “map2019”, a research, exhibition and event project organised by the “Projekt MIK – Mies in Krefeld e.V.” association. The project focuses on 25 Bauhaus artists who from the early 1920s through to the 1960s worked, and in some cases lived, in Krefeld in various ways and for various lengths of time. The industrial-cultural network is directly connected to the silk industry, which at that time was so important for Krefeld.http://projektmik.com/

A fresh start in the West. The Margarethenhöhe artists’ colony

Ruhr Museum Essen
15 April to 3 November 2019

To mark the 100th birthday of the “Small studio house” on the Margarethenhöhe, the Ruhr Museum is showing a major exhibition of the artists’ colony there, which together with the Darmstadt-Mathildenhöhe, Dresden-Hellerau and Worpswede artistic circles was one of the most important in Germany in the 1920s. The exhibition offers an insight into the artistic experiment that was of great importance to the cultural development of Essen and beyond, and which today still leaves its mark in institutions such as the Folkwang University of the Arts, the Museum Folkwang and the Red Dot Design Centre at the Zollverein colliery.www.ruhrmuseum.de

New materials, new forms

LVR-Industriemuseum Oberhausen
19 May 2019 to 23 February 2020

In the Peter Behrens building of the LVR Industriemuseum, a show of new up-and-coming industrial design is being planned in cooperation with the Deutscher-Kunststoff-Museums-Verein e.V. Düsseldorf, the German Plastic Museum association. As well as the avant-garde of the Bauhaus, during the 1920s in general, a modern form language dominated in the product design of consumer and investment goods. The exhibition shows how products were increasingly changing, how elegance and simplicity of form became more important, and new, high-quality materials became ever more popular. The permanent exhibition on Peter Behrens will also be refurbished.www.industriemuseum.lvr.de

Neue Frau (“New Woman”)

LVR-Industriemuseum Tuchfabrik Müller, Euskirchen
17 February to 15 December 2019

LWL-Industriemuseum TextilWerk Bocholt
Spring to autumn 2020

Bobs, short and simply cut clothes, a self-assured appearance – these were what characterised the modern woman of the 1920s. The exhibition shows the “Neue Frau” (“New Woman”) myth in relation to clothing and fashion. Over 130 original items of clothing and many other historical exhibitions bring the period between 1900 and 1930 alive.www.industriemuseum.lvr.de | www.lwl.org

Aufbruch in die Moderne: Der junge Josef Albers (Advent of the modern era: the young Josef Albers)

The exhibition shows the early work of the artist, who was born in Bottrop, and who was initially inspired by the works of masters who at that time were still almost entirely unknown, such as Cézanne, Gauguin or Matisse. His first career steps before he joined the Bauhaus movement and his search for his own form of expression are the focus of this exhibition of the work of Josef Albers (1888 – 1976). At that time, he was inspired by the works of masters who at that time were still almost entirely unknown, such as Cézanne, Gauguin or Matisse.

Bauhaus in Hagen

The collection of the Osthaus Museum includes works by Anni Albers, Josef Albers, Max Bill, Lyonel Feininger, Wassily Kandinski and other artists who either influenced the Bauhaus as teachers or who studied there. The exhibition starts with the pre-Bauhaus period and ends with Josef Albers’ “Homage to the Square” from the late 1960s.

The extensive collections of the city archive and city museum provide insights into the society, culture, urban planning and politics of the revolutionary period from 1918-1920, as well as the Weimar Republic in Hagen, and highlight the influence and the tradition of the Bauhaus in the home city of Karl Ernst Osthaus.

Karl Ernst Osthaus realised a commission on behalf of Walter Gropius to compile an exhibition on “model industrial buildings”. From 1911, this travelling exhibition went on tour, starting in Hagen. In the Osthaus Museum Hagen, the project will be reconstructed in collaboration with the Kunstmuseen Krefeld (Krefeld art museums).

Leuchten der Moderne (“Modern age lamps”)

LWL-Industriemuseum Glashütte Gernheim
10 February to 25 August 2019

The LWL Industriemuseum Glashütte Gernheim presents the first lighting glass of the modern age in a representative exhibition. Lamps that have never been shown before will form the focus of the presentation, which makes the connection from heat-resistant glass to the form concepts of the Bauhaus movement, Wilhelm Wagenfeld’s designs of the 1930s and the forms of the “New Objectivity”. The lamps – all of which are extremely rare and highly sought-after collector’s items from museums and private collections – are accompanied by contemporary photos, advertising material, catalogues and design drawings.www.lwl.org

Bauhaus-Dialoge im HeinrichNeuyBauhausMuseum

Bauhaus-Dialoge: Stühle der Löffler-Collection (Bauhaus dialogues in the HeinrichNeuyBauhausMuseum. Bauhaus Dialogues: chairs from the Löffler Collection)
until 20 January 2019

In the HeinrichNeuyBauhausMuseum, authentic seating from the Löffler Collection, including works by Marcel Breuer, Erich, Dieckmann and mies van der Rohe, will be shown. A child’s chair made of tubular steel and wood, sketched by Heinrich Neuy in 1930 for his application to join the Bauhaus, has also been realised especially for this exhibition.

Bauhaus-Dialoge: De Stijl in den Niederlanden (Bauhaus dialogues: De Stijl in the Netherlands)
3 February to 19 May 2019

Clear lines and works of art and crafted products from the 1920s with their colour ranges reduced to red, yellow and blue are frequently associated with the Bauhaus. However, these can be assigned to the De Stijl group from the Netherlands. The exhibition shows the protagonist and the ideas generated by this group of artists.

Bauhaus-Dialoge: Die Avantgarde in Osteuropa (Bauhaus dialogues: the avantgarde in Eastern Europe)
2 June to 15 September 2019

Avantgarde art movements and art colleges also sprang up in Russia, Ukraine and the Czech Republic. The Russian movement has similar basic features as those of the Bauhaus.

From 1930 to 1932, Heinrich Neuy was a pupil at the Bauhaus in Dessau. The exhibition shows an overview of his life’s work, which took him from the school of applied arts in Krefeld to the Bauhaus in Dessau, to Stienfurt-Borghorst, where he lived from 1937 onwards.www.hnbm.de

An already existing multimedia travelling exhibition organised by the Verein Weimarer Republik e.V. association is being supplemented by a new focus to be developed: “Weimar in the West: Republic of Contradictions”, in which societal developments in Westphalia and the Rhineland between 1918 and 1933 will be presented. In four walk-in cubes, photos and films that have remained unknown to date offer an overview of this chapter in history. The show will open at the Düsseldorf Landtag state parliament.

Denk Mal Bauhaus! Neues Bauen in NRW (“Think Bauhaus! New Building in NRW”)

Travelling exhibition
2019-2020

The roots of Bauhaus can be found in many places in NRW: As well as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, who designed three buildings in Krefeld alone, Henry van de Velde not only worked in the Deutscher Werkbund workers’ association, but also, together with Karl Ernst Osthaus, realised fundamental preparatory works in Hagen, the “Hagen Impulse”, for the later Bauhaus concept. Other Bauhaus artists in the Rhine and Ruhr regions include Peter Behrens, Bruno Paul and Walter Riphahn. Numerous industrial buildings breathe the spirit of the Bauhaus movement, including the Zeche Zollverein colliery in Essen (UNESCO World Heritage Site), the Jahrhunderthalle hall in Bochum, Kokerei Hansa coking plant in Dortmund, the former GHH administrative and warehouse building in Oberhausen (LVR Industriemuseum) and the Henrichshütte iron and steel museum in Hattingen (LWL Industriemuseum).

Under the title “Denk Mal Bauhaus” (“Think Bauhaus”), the NRW Chamber of Architects presents items, artists and lines of development of the Bauhaus movement in the West in a travelling exhibition, and reflects on the heritage of the Bauhaus in NRW with a view to the future.

For the centenary, an app about architecture in NRW will be expanded to include the data about relevant buildings on the theme of “100 years of Bauhaus in the West. Design and Democracy”, which can be retrieved anywhere and at any time and used to plan your route.www.aknw.de